August 5, 2025 • 20 mins
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
🚛 Customer keeps asking for quotes but never books — what to do?
📈 How to find new shippers and grow beyond one customer.
🚨 Carrier holding freight hostage — who do you report it to?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back for another edition of the final
mile.
It's a Q&A session where everyquestion we answer comes from
you guys.
So these these came fromYouTube comments and our I
believe our Facebook page tothis week, so we'll get right
into it.
But first please check out thesponsors down below to help
support the channel and checkout all of our other content,
(00:21):
including the freight brokerbasics course for a full-length
educational option.
Ben, why don't you I feel likeI always read the questions why
don't you take it away with thefirst one here?
First Q&A what?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
they want your voice.
I'm a freight agent forLandstar and need a professional
opinion.
I've worked with a customer forseveral years who regularly
emails me for quotes on lanesthey're bidding on.
However, they never actuallyuse me to move those loads.
This has been happening forover a year.
What should I say to them?
I'm getting tired of justquoting without getting any
(00:53):
freight.
What?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
do you think, nate?
I mean you can apply this to anumber of different scenarios in
sales and in freight brokering?
This could be the trucking sidetoo, if you're talking with a
broker or directly with ashipper.
So I'll try to answer it in away that's as applicable as
possible to everybody.
But there's a spectrum here.
(01:18):
So I'm usually just all aboutbeing a straight shooter and I'd
probably be like hey, I've beenquoting these for you for a
year now.
We haven't been awardedanything.
Um, can you give me any idea asto why that is?
Are we coming in?
Um, are the rates not good?
Is there something about ourrating?
Um, I usually just would try tokeep it an open question, like,
(01:38):
just ask for general feedback.
I do the same thing with a bid,like, if a bid comes back and
nothing's awarded, I usuallywant to get on the phone and be
like hey, can you just let meknow, like, what happened there?
What's some general feedback sowe can do a better job to
service you in the future, andthen just see what they're going
to say Another side to it tooand then we'll take your opinion
on it.
(01:58):
Another side is like you getsome of these shippers that they
literally like send it out to200 people, right 200.
And it might be.
You know we're telling you theprice and the first one that can
get a truck there wins, andit's just like those folks just
aren't worth your time.
(02:19):
So it could be.
It could just be that like,move on to the next one is
another option to it justdepends on the situation.
But what's your take on it?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, mine is the advice.
The same guy I was talkingabout in the episode told me
this when I was learning theindustry and he, when this was
happening to somebody, he'd gowell, listen, like, do you just
want to be a free piece ofmarket insight or like just a
free rating tool?
Because that's what thatshipper's using you for?
It's just you're just givingthem your opinion on what it
should cost every day and thenthey pick the cheapest one, like
(02:48):
that's not earning you moneyand you're just going to work
for free.
He's like you know you want tobe able to nip that in the bud
as fast as possible.
So, like the habit I wouldalways get in is like if you're
sending me lanes to quote, I'mgoing to try to call you like
honestly, sometimes before Iquote, it is preferable you send
me a bunch of lanes, I'm goingto give you a buzz, but like,
(03:09):
hey man, are any of these lanesyou want me to focus on that are
higher priority, that need togo out sooner today than later?
Any of these like must moves,which ones do you really need me
to focus on?
Why I ask that first is thatgives me some ideas to which
ones I can quote service versusjust the cheapest truck.
And if they go, hey, these arethree hot loads.
(03:29):
The other five can go today,tomorrow or Friday.
I'm going to focus on the threethat got to go out today
because those are the ones thatgot to move.
The other three I might throw anumber on, but, like I know,
they care more about price thanservice for those.
So it's first trying tounderstand any feedback.
Then the second question I wasasked is like well, hey, out of
(03:49):
these three that you're sayingyou got to get out today, do you
got a target rate in mind anddo you have a time of day you
ideally would like this pickedup on?
So sometimes I go look, hey,man, we don't give feedback, we
don't give target rates, butthese got to pick up by 11 in
the morning.
Well then I got at least someidea on where I need to price
this if that load has to pick upat 11.
Now here's the thing thathappens once it goes is, let's
say, I price a little higher inthe market because they're
telling me it needs a load by 10in the morning, but I don't get
(04:11):
that load today.
One of two things happens.
Somebody might have been ableto get a truck that happened to
be empty at below market, andthat's possible, but that's not
possible every time.
So maybe they got it picked upby 11, but it's also more likely
that the cheaper guy told themhe'd get a truck in by 11 and
got it there at one or two inthe afternoon.
Now the customer's a littleupset.
So next week when I do theexact same thing again and I go,
(04:34):
hey, you know, the one you saidhad to get picked up by 11, I
thought I put a pretty good rateon it.
I think I might even had atruck that was empty that could
have made it by 10.
Did you get that load picked upwhen you expected to?
Now I'm not asking what is theirservice percentage or how are
their other brokers doing.
I'm asking a very specificquestion about the one load that
I thought I should have got.
(04:55):
And if they tell me, right,like, no, like I ended up
getting that moved by like theend of the day, well, I know
that's a service failure fromwhat they expected, right, so
I'm going to.
I am now setting the stage toget them to understand service
versus price and next week I cango like hey, do you really need
this by 11?
Or is that kind of like a hope,Because, like I'll quote it a
(05:15):
little cheaper but the guy mightbe a little delayed at his last
receiver to get you that rate.
He might end up either two orthree.
Do you want the guy at twogrand or do you want the guy for
2200?
That is already empty?
That can be there right now.
Now I'm giving them a choice topick between rate and service.
(05:36):
There's always a little bit ofboth, but I'm giving them two
options.
Now I'm not just sending rateswith no feedback.
I always feel like now it'smore like I'm playing poker with
somebody face-to-face.
I'm giving them feedback.
They saw what I was able to do,and then the next time I'm able
to give them some more options.
Then, as you do this week overweek or day over day, you can
really start to gauge, like, isthis somebody that is ever going
to work with me?
Or is this somebody that saysthey want service but like
(05:58):
they're always just going topick the cheapest one anyway and
if I'm not the cheapest I don'twin it?
Now I can make an easierdecision.
Do I want to keep wasting mytime quoting or do I want to go
spend more time prospecting toget a customer that is willing
to pay for what they actuallysay they need?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, I'll add in there too.
One of the one of the thingsthat I've seen in the past is
like we had a broker on our teamthat, just like the, they hired
a new traffic manager and wewere still onboarded and got
their emails manager.
(06:33):
And we were still onboarded andgot their emails and, um, you
know, he had a couple calls withthe new traffic manager and
like, no matter what he quoted,like even if it was a good rate,
like they just would never usethem eventually it was like we
just found out like you justdidn't like the guy, like he
just didn't like our broker forwhatever personality reason, and
it was like that just kind ofhappens sometimes too.
So, yep, it's a people business, yep, but no, that's a really
good breakdown.
Next question I'm a freightbroker agent with one and a half
(06:57):
years of experience and I havebuilt a strong relationship with
one customer.
Now I'd like to diversify andbring on new shippers.
What are some effectivestrategies for expanding my
customer base and growing mybusiness?
Effective strategies forexpanding my customer base and
growing my business?
I'm glad to know that thisperson is thinking diversifying,
because you oftentimes getsomeone who's got one customer
and when they lose that onecustomer, they lose everything.
(07:19):
I just gave you that situationabout one of my brokers in the
past who the person didn't likethem.
I had another broker that hadone big customer and we're
talking like it was a very solidcustomer.
There'd be months where he hewould do 50 or 60 K and and
profit for them.
Um, his, his like guy overthere got promoted and they
(07:39):
hired some kid to come in andthe kid just didn't like him.
It's same thing but with adifferent broker, a different
customer, different you knowsituation.
He went from like broker adifferent customer, different
you know situation.
He went from like he went fromriches to regs overnight like
and I felt bad because the dudehad just bought a new house and
he bought a big truck and allthat.
All the things that people do,you know stupid things with
their money when they thinkthey're they're killing it.
But you had one customer, allhis eggs were in one basket.
(08:01):
So all I have to say I'm gladthat this, this listener is
thinking long term.
So a couple of things to pointout.
Basics for growing yourbusiness is the the easiest low
hanging fruit when you'vealready got a customer is going
to likely be some sort ofreferral business, whether that
is.
Look at where you're deliveringto look at some of the
(08:23):
suppliers that are deliveringinto your customer.
Have a conversation with yourcustomer, maybe find out.
Are there any other companiesor people that they know that
may be a good fit.
So maybe you're the guy or girlyou're working with runs a
branch of a large company.
Do they have anyone else at adifferent branch that they might
say hey, you know Ben's beendoing great for us.
(08:44):
I would love for you to givehim a shot at some of the lanes
you guys are running becausehe's been killing it for us.
Those are some of your bestwarm leads to have, because it's
not a cold opening.
We have to start from zero whenit comes to the level of trust.
There's already apre-established level of trust
and it's a mutual customer in alot of cases.
That's my take.
(09:04):
You could also just continue togo down the road of how you got
your first customer right.
Continue to prospect, which youshould be always doing anyway.
So if your customer that you'reservicing is in a certain niche
market and you've gotten toreally understand that, lean
into that right.
Are there other opportunities,other areas of the country or
(09:25):
maybe in that same area justother organizations or shippers,
where you can leverage whatyou've learned in that carrier
network and just start to growit Like now you can actually
call and say, hey, I've got atruck in your area every Tuesday
and Thursday or whatever.
You're not just making it up,so look at where you're
delivering.
You know backhaul things likethat, referrals and just
(09:47):
traditional old schoolprospecting.
But what would be your advicehere to diversify?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Pretty much everything you said.
I mean the one strategy is likeI'm for sure going to create a
list of every other company thatdoes the same type of business
in that niche and I'm going toname drop my existing company
when I call them.
Like hey, you know, I've beendoing a lot of work with Acme
Tomatoes and I know you guysmove a lot of tomatoes.
I've got a lot of good,reliable carriers that have been
(10:14):
working with me with them.
I know they're in your areapretty often.
What I know if it might be afit at some point for us to like
look at working together, right, I would call every other
company in the same niche thatI'm already doing well in
Because you've got, like yousaid, experience.
You understand the issues thatare likely to come up.
You'll understand the problemsthey're likely facing because
you're solving them currently.
Like, that is one of them.
(10:36):
The second is the other youpointed out I am prospecting
every place I deliver to or pickup that isn't my customer name
dropping my customer and seeingif I can go and leverage those
like referrals, basically thatI'm creating just by calling my
customer's customer or vendor.
Right, and I mean the other one,you could just pick random
companies or the places yourtrucks are already delivering to
(10:57):
, because you literally havetrucks delivering there.
You know when they're there.
I'm like, hey, I got guys thatare in your area Tuesday and
Thursday every week deliveringfor this company.
Thought maybe it could be a fitIf you guys are looking for,
you know, trucks that arealready in your area and empty.
They get empty like seven inthe morning every day.
They could be over there by 10to you know load if you guys got
anything out of there andGenlogs is a great tool for that
(11:17):
Like, if you have access toGenlogs or reach out to them,
because, like, you can just putthat lane in there and get a
list of all the shippers thatare shipping out of the place
that you're delivering toalready, that are shipping out
of the place that you'redelivering to already?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yep, a hundred percent, absolutely Final
question here who do you reporta hostage load to, where a
carrier is refusing to deliverthe load and won't disclose his
exact location?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Short answer no one.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Sadly a common question lately and we did talk
a little bit about this.
I think actually the questionwas probably related to our, our
episode that we did last weekor two weeks ago.
Um, so I would recommend to.
We did a, an episode, I think,a year ago with cargo net right.
Does that sound right, where we?
(12:05):
Um, anyway, we talked a bitabout how, how, like the process
of like, what you're supposedto do when, when a load is is
taken hostage.
I'll tell you what.
What I've done in in realapplication in like this year
right is local law enforcement.
You have to get a police reportfor the sake of like.
(12:28):
If there's going to be a claimat any point in time like, you
need to have it documented andthat's a.
That's a solid first or earlyon step to do so.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Ok, further, local law enforcement.
For anyone out there, does thatmean local to where the broker
is, or where you think the truckis, or where the truck?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
is is how I've always done it, because it's like if
if somebody picked up and so,for example, I don't know if I
remember I told you about a load, like a impersonated broker
used our company's name and hadlike a load of apparel,
basically like stolen and takento a warehouse in California, I
called the district attorney'soffice of LA County or whatever
(13:06):
county LA is in, like that's whoI contacted about that and I'm
like you know it's worth$400,000.
They didn't care, it wasn't bigenough for them.
Like that that area is dealingwith multimillion dollar freight
theft with like the the railyards and stuff like that.
So and that's the reality,that's some of the stuff you're
going to run into is like it'sjust not a big enough deal for
(13:27):
some of these law enforcementagencies.
Like if you're like, yeah, theystole a load of ping pong balls
, it's like, no, we don't careif If you stole a load of like
high end electronics you mightget on someone's radar.
So local law enforcement and Imean you said you know, is it
where it's located or where youare?
I would recommend where it'slocated, but it never hurts to
(13:49):
like over report.
Like I remember years ago therewas a case of fraud that we
dealt with, and it wasn't.
It wasn't um, it wasn't stolencargo.
It's basically like someone waslike fraudulently trying to
like move, like move fake loadsand like scam the company I used
to work for, and we wecontacted like the fbi's office
(14:11):
in buffalo, um, and the crimewasn't happening here, but that
office like happily took it on.
I think it just depends onbecause, I mean, fbi is a
national-level organization.
They saw what was going on andthey were like I'm sure that
field rep was probably like thisis a pretty easy one to handle,
I'm going to take credit for itand look good, I don't want it
to go to somebody else in someother area.
So there's that.
(14:31):
There's also a variety of placesyou can report it online.
So, like the FMCSA does have aplace to report cargo theft,
double brokering, identity theft, all that stuff Right, whether
or not they monitor it.
Like we talked about the stats,though, there was like 80,000
reports and nothing was donewith it.
You've got reviews on DAT,you've got watchdog reports,
(14:54):
you've got freight guards,you've got highway Google.
I mean you could just go on,blast about you know, at any
reporting place.
I think what's more important,though, is like if a load is
being held hostage, that'sdifferent than a stolen load,
like they might just be saying,like hey, I'm holding it hostage
(15:14):
until you agree to give me, youknow, a thousand dollars more
or whatever.
And if that's the case, I'mjust going to agree to it and do
it under duress and not pay thefull amount, like that's just
what we're going to do.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And explain what that means.
Right, because, like I've hadthat happen right and at a large
company and when somebody isjust holding it hostage and
asking for like a crazy amountlike mine was, like it was like
a thirty five hundred dollarload, then they wanted seven
grand and they wanted twelve.
Well, listen, you're going toagree to it because your first
objective is to get the cargo tothe receiver Right and to make
(16:05):
sure it doesn't disappear, getdamaged or actually stolen.
So, like, the objective, firstprinciple is get it to where you
need it, to where you need itto.
And they said in doing so, ifyou are agreeing to somebody,
like you said, literally holdingit, to ask you for a ransom to
get it delivered, get that inwriting and get it on a recorded
(16:25):
call, preferably both.
Right, you need that in writingbecause if you send the carrier
a rate con for, theoretically,12 grand on a $3,000 load, you
need in writing that they'rebasically saying I won't deliver
this unless you give me 12grand.
So when they go to invoice youand you go to pay them the three
grand and they try to file onyour bond, you have in writing
to show what happened and why ithappened which prevents you
(16:46):
from having to pay the 12 grandinstead of the three.
Right Even before that right,like I think first step is, like
you said, notify lawenforcement so you have a
document in case something doesgo wrong.
But you really want to try todeescalate it, avoid conflict,
get them to talk to you aboutwhy it's happening in the first
(17:07):
place and really try to justfind a solution that makes
everybody happy.
Like that, honestly, isprobably like the best way to go
about it.
Like hey, if they're arguingover something like I don't know
, I guess it wouldn't even beatattention.
But like they just think youmisled them.
You said the load was 35,000pounds, it was actually 45 and
they want an extra 500 bucks andthey're saying I'm not going to
(17:29):
deliver the load unless you payme what this would actually
cost to run.
Like try to understand wherethey're coming from and work
towards a reasonable solution.
Maybe it's not 500, maybe it's350.
And you're probably in thewrong if they're in the right
and you've got to be willing toadmit that in some of these
scenarios, if you made a mistakethat caused this to happen.
Like work towards a reasonablesolution so that you don't have
to escalate it and do because,by the way, it is a lot of extra
(17:52):
work to do all these things.
If you could just get itdelivered for the extra few
hundred bucks, that is waybetter than spending hours and
dealing with a bond and thensending a rate con that you
won't pay and then writingreviews everywhere and like that
just creates so much more workfor everybody.
If you're at fault, I feel likethe first step is work towards a
reasonable, fair solution andyour first objective is to get
(18:14):
the load delivered, because ifit's gone you're never
recovering it.
And now you've got to workthrough a claim your customer's
not going to want to pay theirother bills.
You're going to have hours ofwork and risk related to the
situation to sometimes save 300bucks or whatever the number is.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, this is another reason why it's so important to
track, when you can rightWhether it's uh, end to end
tracking through a cell phone,through a telematics device in
the cab, like an ELD, um, yourone time, um, you know, take a
picture like a like a quickscope, or even like the text
(18:49):
locate Um.
Gen logs is another thing thatcame to my mind too.
So, like, if you remember, wehad Ryan on.
I don't know if it was lastyear or maybe six months ago,
but they released the free findlost assets tool on their
website, where they have a formyou can fill out and it's just
like here's what's missing andthey'll like they do it to
(19:11):
combat fraud, right,no-transcript.
(19:37):
It's definitely important tomake sure that you're thoroughly
vetting your carriers andhaving clear conversation with
them about what the pay is goingto be to try and prevent this
stuff from happening.
Good questions, keep themcoming our way and we'll keep
answering them, ben.
Any final thoughts?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And until next time.
Welcome back for another edition of the final
mile.
It's a Q&A session where everyquestion we answer comes from
you guys.
So these these came fromYouTube comments and our I
believe our Facebook page tothis week, so we'll get right
into it.
But first please check out thesponsors down below to help
support the channel and checkout all of our other content,
(00:21):
including the freight brokerbasics course for a full-length
educational option.
Ben, why don't you I feel likeI always read the questions why
don't you take it away with thefirst one here?
First Q&A what?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
they want your voice.
I'm a freight agent forLandstar and need a professional
opinion.
I've worked with a customer forseveral years who regularly
emails me for quotes on lanesthey're bidding on.
However, they never actuallyuse me to move those loads.
This has been happening forover a year.
What should I say to them?
I'm getting tired of justquoting without getting any
(00:53):
freight.
What?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
do you think, nate?
I mean you can apply this to anumber of different scenarios in
sales and in freight brokering?
This could be the trucking sidetoo, if you're talking with a
broker or directly with ashipper.
So I'll try to answer it in away that's as applicable as
possible to everybody.
But there's a spectrum here.
(01:18):
So I'm usually just all aboutbeing a straight shooter and I'd
probably be like hey, I've beenquoting these for you for a
year now.
We haven't been awardedanything.
Um, can you give me any idea asto why that is?
Are we coming in?
Um, are the rates not good?
Is there something about ourrating?
Um, I usually just would try tokeep it an open question, like,
(01:38):
just ask for general feedback.
I do the same thing with a bid,like, if a bid comes back and
nothing's awarded, I usuallywant to get on the phone and be
like hey, can you just let meknow, like, what happened there?
What's some general feedback sowe can do a better job to
service you in the future, andthen just see what they're going
to say Another side to it tooand then we'll take your opinion
on it.
(01:58):
Another side is like you getsome of these shippers that they
literally like send it out to200 people, right 200.
And it might be.
You know we're telling you theprice and the first one that can
get a truck there wins, andit's just like those folks just
aren't worth your time.
(02:19):
So it could be.
It could just be that like,move on to the next one is
another option to it justdepends on the situation.
But what's your take on it?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, mine is the advice.
The same guy I was talkingabout in the episode told me
this when I was learning theindustry and he, when this was
happening to somebody, he'd gowell, listen, like, do you just
want to be a free piece ofmarket insight or like just a
free rating tool?
Because that's what thatshipper's using you for?
It's just you're just givingthem your opinion on what it
should cost every day and thenthey pick the cheapest one, like
(02:48):
that's not earning you moneyand you're just going to work
for free.
He's like you know you want tobe able to nip that in the bud
as fast as possible.
So, like the habit I wouldalways get in is like if you're
sending me lanes to quote, I'mgoing to try to call you like
honestly, sometimes before Iquote, it is preferable you send
me a bunch of lanes, I'm goingto give you a buzz, but like,
(03:09):
hey man, are any of these lanesyou want me to focus on that are
higher priority, that need togo out sooner today than later?
Any of these like must moves,which ones do you really need me
to focus on?
Why I ask that first is thatgives me some ideas to which
ones I can quote service versusjust the cheapest truck.
And if they go, hey, these arethree hot loads.
(03:29):
The other five can go today,tomorrow or Friday.
I'm going to focus on the threethat got to go out today
because those are the ones thatgot to move.
The other three I might throw anumber on, but, like I know,
they care more about price thanservice for those.
So it's first trying tounderstand any feedback.
Then the second question I wasasked is like well, hey, out of
(03:49):
these three that you're sayingyou got to get out today, do you
got a target rate in mind anddo you have a time of day you
ideally would like this pickedup on?
So sometimes I go look, hey,man, we don't give feedback, we
don't give target rates, butthese got to pick up by 11 in
the morning.
Well then I got at least someidea on where I need to price
this if that load has to pick upat 11.
Now here's the thing thathappens once it goes is, let's
say, I price a little higher inthe market because they're
telling me it needs a load by 10in the morning, but I don't get
(04:11):
that load today.
One of two things happens.
Somebody might have been ableto get a truck that happened to
be empty at below market, andthat's possible, but that's not
possible every time.
So maybe they got it picked upby 11, but it's also more likely
that the cheaper guy told themhe'd get a truck in by 11 and
got it there at one or two inthe afternoon.
Now the customer's a littleupset.
So next week when I do theexact same thing again and I go,
(04:34):
hey, you know, the one you saidhad to get picked up by 11, I
thought I put a pretty good rateon it.
I think I might even had atruck that was empty that could
have made it by 10.
Did you get that load picked upwhen you expected to?
Now I'm not asking what is theirservice percentage or how are
their other brokers doing.
I'm asking a very specificquestion about the one load that
I thought I should have got.
(04:55):
And if they tell me, right,like, no, like I ended up
getting that moved by like theend of the day, well, I know
that's a service failure fromwhat they expected, right, so
I'm going to.
I am now setting the stage toget them to understand service
versus price and next week I cango like hey, do you really need
this by 11?
Or is that kind of like a hope,Because, like I'll quote it a
(05:15):
little cheaper but the guy mightbe a little delayed at his last
receiver to get you that rate.
He might end up either two orthree.
Do you want the guy at twogrand or do you want the guy for
2200?
That is already empty?
That can be there right now.
Now I'm giving them a choice topick between rate and service.
(05:36):
There's always a little bit ofboth, but I'm giving them two
options.
Now I'm not just sending rateswith no feedback.
I always feel like now it'smore like I'm playing poker with
somebody face-to-face.
I'm giving them feedback.
They saw what I was able to do,and then the next time I'm able
to give them some more options.
Then, as you do this week overweek or day over day, you can
really start to gauge, like, isthis somebody that is ever going
to work with me?
Or is this somebody that saysthey want service but like
(05:58):
they're always just going topick the cheapest one anyway and
if I'm not the cheapest I don'twin it?
Now I can make an easierdecision.
Do I want to keep wasting mytime quoting or do I want to go
spend more time prospecting toget a customer that is willing
to pay for what they actuallysay they need?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, I'll add in there too.
One of the one of the thingsthat I've seen in the past is
like we had a broker on our teamthat, just like the, they hired
a new traffic manager and wewere still onboarded and got
their emails manager.
(06:33):
And we were still onboarded andgot their emails and, um, you
know, he had a couple calls withthe new traffic manager and
like, no matter what he quoted,like even if it was a good rate,
like they just would never usethem eventually it was like we
just found out like you justdidn't like the guy, like he
just didn't like our broker forwhatever personality reason, and
it was like that just kind ofhappens sometimes too.
So, yep, it's a people business, yep, but no, that's a really
good breakdown.
Next question I'm a freightbroker agent with one and a half
(06:57):
years of experience and I havebuilt a strong relationship with
one customer.
Now I'd like to diversify andbring on new shippers.
What are some effectivestrategies for expanding my
customer base and growing mybusiness?
Effective strategies forexpanding my customer base and
growing my business?
I'm glad to know that thisperson is thinking diversifying,
because you oftentimes getsomeone who's got one customer
and when they lose that onecustomer, they lose everything.
(07:19):
I just gave you that situationabout one of my brokers in the
past who the person didn't likethem.
I had another broker that hadone big customer and we're
talking like it was a very solidcustomer.
There'd be months where he hewould do 50 or 60 K and and
profit for them.
Um, his, his like guy overthere got promoted and they
(07:39):
hired some kid to come in andthe kid just didn't like him.
It's same thing but with adifferent broker, a different
customer, different you knowsituation.
He went from like broker adifferent customer, different
you know situation.
He went from like he went fromriches to regs overnight like
and I felt bad because the dudehad just bought a new house and
he bought a big truck and allthat.
All the things that people do,you know stupid things with
their money when they thinkthey're they're killing it.
But you had one customer, allhis eggs were in one basket.
(08:01):
So all I have to say I'm gladthat this, this listener is
thinking long term.
So a couple of things to pointout.
Basics for growing yourbusiness is the the easiest low
hanging fruit when you'vealready got a customer is going
to likely be some sort ofreferral business, whether that
is.
Look at where you're deliveringto look at some of the
(08:23):
suppliers that are deliveringinto your customer.
Have a conversation with yourcustomer, maybe find out.
Are there any other companiesor people that they know that
may be a good fit.
So maybe you're the guy or girlyou're working with runs a
branch of a large company.
Do they have anyone else at adifferent branch that they might
say hey, you know Ben's beendoing great for us.
(08:44):
I would love for you to givehim a shot at some of the lanes
you guys are running becausehe's been killing it for us.
Those are some of your bestwarm leads to have, because it's
not a cold opening.
We have to start from zero whenit comes to the level of trust.
There's already apre-established level of trust
and it's a mutual customer in alot of cases.
That's my take.
(09:04):
You could also just continue togo down the road of how you got
your first customer right.
Continue to prospect, which youshould be always doing anyway.
So if your customer that you'reservicing is in a certain niche
market and you've gotten toreally understand that, lean
into that right.
Are there other opportunities,other areas of the country or
(09:25):
maybe in that same area justother organizations or shippers,
where you can leverage whatyou've learned in that carrier
network and just start to growit Like now you can actually
call and say, hey, I've got atruck in your area every Tuesday
and Thursday or whatever.
You're not just making it up,so look at where you're
delivering.
You know backhaul things likethat, referrals and just
(09:47):
traditional old schoolprospecting.
But what would be your advicehere to diversify?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Pretty much everything you said.
I mean the one strategy is likeI'm for sure going to create a
list of every other company thatdoes the same type of business
in that niche and I'm going toname drop my existing company
when I call them.
Like hey, you know, I've beendoing a lot of work with Acme
Tomatoes and I know you guysmove a lot of tomatoes.
I've got a lot of good,reliable carriers that have been
(10:14):
working with me with them.
I know they're in your areapretty often.
What I know if it might be afit at some point for us to like
look at working together, right, I would call every other
company in the same niche thatI'm already doing well in
Because you've got, like yousaid, experience.
You understand the issues thatare likely to come up.
You'll understand the problemsthey're likely facing because
you're solving them currently.
Like, that is one of them.
(10:36):
The second is the other youpointed out I am prospecting
every place I deliver to or pickup that isn't my customer name
dropping my customer and seeingif I can go and leverage those
like referrals, basically thatI'm creating just by calling my
customer's customer or vendor.
Right, and I mean the other one,you could just pick random
companies or the places yourtrucks are already delivering to
(10:57):
, because you literally havetrucks delivering there.
You know when they're there.
I'm like, hey, I got guys thatare in your area Tuesday and
Thursday every week deliveringfor this company.
Thought maybe it could be a fitIf you guys are looking for,
you know, trucks that arealready in your area and empty.
They get empty like seven inthe morning every day.
They could be over there by 10to you know load if you guys got
anything out of there andGenlogs is a great tool for that
(11:17):
Like, if you have access toGenlogs or reach out to them,
because, like, you can just putthat lane in there and get a
list of all the shippers thatare shipping out of the place
that you're delivering toalready, that are shipping out
of the place that you'redelivering to already?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yep, a hundred percent, absolutely Final
question here who do you reporta hostage load to, where a
carrier is refusing to deliverthe load and won't disclose his
exact location?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Short answer no one.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Sadly a common question lately and we did talk
a little bit about this.
I think actually the questionwas probably related to our, our
episode that we did last weekor two weeks ago.
Um, so I would recommend to.
We did a, an episode, I think,a year ago with cargo net right.
Does that sound right, where we?
(12:05):
Um, anyway, we talked a bitabout how, how, like the process
of like, what you're supposedto do when, when a load is is
taken hostage.
I'll tell you what.
What I've done in in realapplication in like this year
right is local law enforcement.
You have to get a police reportfor the sake of like.
(12:28):
If there's going to be a claimat any point in time like, you
need to have it documented andthat's a.
That's a solid first or earlyon step to do so.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Ok, further, local law enforcement.
For anyone out there, does thatmean local to where the broker
is, or where you think the truckis, or where the truck?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
is is how I've always done it, because it's like if
if somebody picked up and so,for example, I don't know if I
remember I told you about a load, like a impersonated broker
used our company's name and hadlike a load of apparel,
basically like stolen and takento a warehouse in California, I
called the district attorney'soffice of LA County or whatever
(13:06):
county LA is in, like that's whoI contacted about that and I'm
like you know it's worth$400,000.
They didn't care, it wasn't bigenough for them.
Like that that area is dealingwith multimillion dollar freight
theft with like the the railyards and stuff like that.
So and that's the reality,that's some of the stuff you're
going to run into is like it'sjust not a big enough deal for
(13:27):
some of these law enforcementagencies.
Like if you're like, yeah, theystole a load of ping pong balls
, it's like, no, we don't careif If you stole a load of like
high end electronics you mightget on someone's radar.
So local law enforcement and Imean you said you know, is it
where it's located or where youare?
I would recommend where it'slocated, but it never hurts to
(13:49):
like over report.
Like I remember years ago therewas a case of fraud that we
dealt with, and it wasn't.
It wasn't um, it wasn't stolencargo.
It's basically like someone waslike fraudulently trying to
like move, like move fake loadsand like scam the company I used
to work for, and we wecontacted like the fbi's office
(14:11):
in buffalo, um, and the crimewasn't happening here, but that
office like happily took it on.
I think it just depends onbecause, I mean, fbi is a
national-level organization.
They saw what was going on andthey were like I'm sure that
field rep was probably like thisis a pretty easy one to handle,
I'm going to take credit for itand look good, I don't want it
to go to somebody else in someother area.
So there's that.
(14:31):
There's also a variety of placesyou can report it online.
So, like the FMCSA does have aplace to report cargo theft,
double brokering, identity theft, all that stuff Right, whether
or not they monitor it.
Like we talked about the stats,though, there was like 80,000
reports and nothing was donewith it.
You've got reviews on DAT,you've got watchdog reports,
(14:54):
you've got freight guards,you've got highway Google.
I mean you could just go on,blast about you know, at any
reporting place.
I think what's more important,though, is like if a load is
being held hostage, that'sdifferent than a stolen load,
like they might just be saying,like hey, I'm holding it hostage
(15:14):
until you agree to give me, youknow, a thousand dollars more
or whatever.
And if that's the case, I'mjust going to agree to it and do
it under duress and not pay thefull amount, like that's just
what we're going to do.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And explain what that means.
Right, because, like I've hadthat happen right and at a large
company and when somebody isjust holding it hostage and
asking for like a crazy amountlike mine was, like it was like
a thirty five hundred dollarload, then they wanted seven
grand and they wanted twelve.
Well, listen, you're going toagree to it because your first
objective is to get the cargo tothe receiver Right and to make
(16:05):
sure it doesn't disappear, getdamaged or actually stolen.
So, like, the objective, firstprinciple is get it to where you
need it, to where you need itto.
And they said in doing so, ifyou are agreeing to somebody,
like you said, literally holdingit, to ask you for a ransom to
get it delivered, get that inwriting and get it on a recorded
(16:25):
call, preferably both.
Right, you need that in writingbecause if you send the carrier
a rate con for, theoretically,12 grand on a $3,000 load, you
need in writing that they'rebasically saying I won't deliver
this unless you give me 12grand.
So when they go to invoice youand you go to pay them the three
grand and they try to file onyour bond, you have in writing
to show what happened and why ithappened which prevents you
(16:46):
from having to pay the 12 grandinstead of the three.
Right Even before that right,like I think first step is, like
you said, notify lawenforcement so you have a
document in case something doesgo wrong.
But you really want to try todeescalate it, avoid conflict,
get them to talk to you aboutwhy it's happening in the first
(17:07):
place and really try to justfind a solution that makes
everybody happy.
Like that, honestly, isprobably like the best way to go
about it.
Like hey, if they're arguingover something like I don't know
, I guess it wouldn't even beatattention.
But like they just think youmisled them.
You said the load was 35,000pounds, it was actually 45 and
they want an extra 500 bucks andthey're saying I'm not going to
(17:29):
deliver the load unless you payme what this would actually
cost to run.
Like try to understand wherethey're coming from and work
towards a reasonable solution.
Maybe it's not 500, maybe it's350.
And you're probably in thewrong if they're in the right
and you've got to be willing toadmit that in some of these
scenarios, if you made a mistakethat caused this to happen.
Like work towards a reasonablesolution so that you don't have
to escalate it and do because,by the way, it is a lot of extra
(17:52):
work to do all these things.
If you could just get itdelivered for the extra few
hundred bucks, that is waybetter than spending hours and
dealing with a bond and thensending a rate con that you
won't pay and then writingreviews everywhere and like that
just creates so much more workfor everybody.
If you're at fault, I feel likethe first step is work towards a
reasonable, fair solution andyour first objective is to get
(18:14):
the load delivered, because ifit's gone you're never
recovering it.
And now you've got to workthrough a claim your customer's
not going to want to pay theirother bills.
You're going to have hours ofwork and risk related to the
situation to sometimes save 300bucks or whatever the number is.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, this is another reason why it's so important to
track, when you can rightWhether it's uh, end to end
tracking through a cell phone,through a telematics device in
the cab, like an ELD, um, yourone time, um, you know, take a
picture like a like a quickscope, or even like the text
(18:49):
locate Um.
Gen logs is another thing thatcame to my mind too.
So, like, if you remember, wehad Ryan on.
I don't know if it was lastyear or maybe six months ago,
but they released the free findlost assets tool on their
website, where they have a formyou can fill out and it's just
like here's what's missing andthey'll like they do it to
(19:11):
combat fraud, right,no-transcript.
(19:37):
It's definitely important tomake sure that you're thoroughly
vetting your carriers andhaving clear conversation with
them about what the pay is goingto be to try and prevent this
stuff from happening.
Good questions, keep themcoming our way and we'll keep
answering them, ben.
Any final thoughts?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And until next time.
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